Eric Schmidt says Microsoft, not Apple or Facebook, is the biggest rival Google has right now.

"Bing is a well run, highly competitive search engine," Schmidt tells the WSJ's Alan Murray in a long interview. Meanwhile, it's "too early to tell," how big a competitor Facebook will be, he says. Apple is, "the extreme expression of a closed system, but also a partner."

While Bing is going right after Google's core business, we think Apple and Facebook are long term threats. Each of those companies are fighting for the next big thing.

Apple and Facebook will be pieces of the next big thing, they don't do enough on their own to BE that big thing.

Google is at the peak of search dominance with very little room to rise and with very determined sharks swimming around their knees yet Google could lose a LOT of that dominance and still be an extremely profitable company.

Facebook, twitter and Apple are also in their stride but near their peaks in popularity with a much greater effort required just to maintain, let alone rise even further.

Let the trench battles begin for incremental user number increases, we're witnessing the internet version of a burger war right now.

The difference between the two is that Bing acts more mature, whreas Google acts like a little pesky start up.

For instance, the way Google asks users to report other sites for buying links, then penalize them, seems kiddish to me. They should just detect paid links and just null any PR effects of it like what Bing, Yahoo etc do.

It looks like Facebook made tens of millions of dollars in 2009. Google made nearly 7 billion.

For some reason, analysts continue to hold onto the notion that volume of visitors is the primary driver of profits - it's not. While volume does provide the opportunity for profits, it's not a guarantee.

I'm guessing that someone will take Facebook to the next level, just like Facebook did to MySpace. Investors will abandon Facebook as will users. It's an interesting cycle; one that depends on social trends.

Once critical mass is reached, building momentum is easier than sustaining it. I think that Facebook will be remembered as an interesting social experiment since it preys on the insecurities of individuals.

the guys at goog have no one to blame but themselves. Bing wouldn't even be here if they hadn't started shooting shots across MS's bow. Although i am glad we have other engines in the marketplace now given goog's arrogance.

In reality, goog is googs biggest threat, we are watching them self destruct with each update. Just the scent of competition puts them into a self destructive whirlwind.

It's not that Bing is fantastic that people are flocking to it. Bing is becoming popular not (totally) because of their own efforts but because Google is driving people away from themselves and Bing happens to be one of the best alternatives.

What I am seeing in client site referrer logs is that there is a small but steady decline in Google referred traffic with a gain in traffic splattered from people's various "second choice engines". Traffic isn't down but there all sorts of engine referrers popping up that weren't in there before as people scour the search engine landscape looking for a Google replacement as their primary search source.

I would return to using Google in a heartbeat if they made a real attempt at cleaning up their sad act but I don't see that happening because the people in charge are not the internal tech people who built it and obviously must be noticing the self-destruction in progress. They used to have a very solid product but they have now outsourced it to their boardroom who are not qualified to run it.

I hope Bing doesn't get smug and complacent because Google has acknowledged them as "a threat" because they are becoming a threat primarily because of all that Google is doing wrong. If Google reverts to the the engine of old all Bing's market share gains could go up in a puff of smoke.

Microsoft is one of the biggest and direct threat to google directly as a search engine. - Bing search engine. Apple and Facebook on other hand are ind-direct threats which can definetly become a big competitor in future - apple becuase of its internet based hardware - facebook being most visited site (as per sources) which is bing powered search

Overall, this is a good news for rest of webmasters who can also rely on other models to sustain there business.

Are we missing yahoo and/or any other competitor ? What about sites like myspace (google powered) what percentage to this websites hold ?

If Google reverts to the the engine of old all Bing's market share gains could go up in a puff of smoke.

I doubt that for 2 reasons.

1. If the people using Bing are happy with Bing, the have no reason to switch back. People are creatures of habit, they hung on to Google until they switched because they couldn't find what they wanted and now that they use Bing, as long as Bing keeps producing the results they want, the bitter taste Google left with them will prevent them from switching back.

Facebook, a competitor to Google? Not in my eyes. Someone mentioned using Facebook as a search engine for recipies etc. Try typing risotto recipe, roast beef or tomato soup into Facebook and survey the total rubbish you get.

Now try doing the same in Google and the difference is clear. Google provides answers to the query, Facebook provides nothing of any use.

Now type the same search terms into YouTube and what you get is a very good selection of videos that are relevant to the search query.

Facebook is no competitor to Google, short or long term. In the long term YouTube is Google's competitor. Writing AND videos are the future.

I agree that Facebook, as impressive as it has been, is not a major threat to Google.

Google put additional information in front of its users in context to what the users are interested in. Being able to add context is Google secret. And, their advertisers help. And Bing has the same model.

The firm that can addcontext the best will win. And, Google's head start is a huge advantage, along with adding YouTube, etc. I don't know how Bing can overcome that.

Everybody is just asking stuff at facebook instead of searching for it.

Facebook, a competitor to Google? Not in my eyes. Someone mentioned using Facebook as a search engine for recipies etc. Try typing risotto recipe, roast beef or tomato soup into Facebook and survey the total rubbish you get.

Now try doing the same in Google and the difference is clear. Google provides answers to the query, Facebook provides nothing of any use.

I'm thinking that 'theentry' meant that people are asking their friends for information on topics through their status updates -- not necessarily searching on facebook -- and possibly using Google less in the future to find information, as a result of many of their friends offering up their opinions on any subject.

Eric should pay attention to what's going on inside his own house before worrying about Bing.

Google is Google's biggest threat and their continued failure to address core issues that people complain about for years will be their ultimate downfall. One of the biggest issues is SUPPORT, such as providing human support even if it's *PAID* human support, which people constantly complain about. Bing actually provides humans that can be contacted if truly needed so if that's how Bing is a threat, then Eric better provide support as well.

Gmail, AdSense or AdWords account broken, hacked or banned?

Too bad.

Pound sand, there's nobody to talk to, nobody cares.

Heck, today Google's WMTs has some weird redirect error, can't get access to it, lots of complaints, no resolution. Been down over 12 hours, no repair.

Technology isn't how Google will fail, failure to communicate will be their downfall.

Basic lack of response to fundamental failures and mounting frustration by the masses is how Bing will ultimately beat Google.

Technology isn't how Google will fail, failure to communicate will be their downfall.

Bill, You just hit the nail on the head.

Technology and algos and automated responses can only go so far. Without human interraction, they will fail in the long run. The long run may be 10 years or it may be 2 years depending upon how well others leverage this weekness in Google.

Technology isn't how Google will fail, failure to communicate will be their downfall.

Yes this is the biggest problem with google. Not just in their free services but adwords as well. They like to cosider themself as Almighty and they have made it their policy. As an advertiser, we expect to be treated like a customer, not begging poor masses.

1) I don't know where you get your 'facts' from but Facebook is indeed earning a profit and not 'barely breaking even'. Please do some research, Reuters will help explain it for you.

frontpage - do some research on the difference between earnings (money you keep) and revenue (money coming in - before expenses). Don't confuse people on the forum with mixed up facts. Earnings and revenues are quite quite different. Just to make it perfectly clear, I'll quote the article you're referencing:

Last July, Facebook board member Marc Andreessen told Reuters the company was on track to surpass $500 million in annual revenue for 2009. And in September, Facebook said that it had become free cash flow positive, meaning that the company was generating enough cash to cover its operating expenses as well as its capital spending needs.

Have little to bring to the discussion... I recently watched the google boss on Charlie Rose (PBS) and had to run for the barf bag three times. Amazing critter that can evoke such response in ordinary web masters!

Even if its catching up in numbers, Facebook is hardly a threat to Google right now. Unless FB introduces radical changes, they will not make any measurable impact on Google's business. The two sites serve a completely different purpose..

You also have to consider that the bulk of videos posted on FB are served from YouTube. Hardly anyone I know uses the in-house video player on FB.

The more people load videos on youtube the more people watch videos on youtube the more $$$ it costs goog.

youtube is a black hole.

Insignificant really. Bandwidth is cheap. YT is hardly a black hole. Makes no sense saying that when Google is raising file size limits year by year and also allowing higher-res videos. Obviously they aren't hurting..